General search

This facility allows researchers to define the search terms including:

Last name(s)

First name(s)

Birth year or range of years

Sex

Relationship to head of household

Marital status

Occupation category

Street

Birth county

The results can be restriced to one or more census years and limits can be set on the
numbers of results returned and the number of results displayed.

For names, searches can be for

Exact match

Partial match which will match part of a name or a name followed by a second name or initials or second names

Soundex codes which attempt to match similarly sounding names.

Metaphone codes which are similar to Soundex, but possibly provide better results

In general metaphone matches are recommended for last names and partial matches are recommended for first names.

For occupations the search allows selection of an "occupation category". These are listed not in alphabetic order but
within the hierarchy of occupation classification, group, subgroup and category. If this hierarchy is understood it is easy
to search within these more broad groupings of occupations by making multiple selections of category.

Multiple selections can be made by clicking the mouse whilst holding the 'Shift' key for a block of selections and the
'Control' key for single selections.

Selecting 'all' will remove the field from the search criteria.

With regard to ages and birth years, remember that in 1841 only, the census guidelines recommended that ages over 15
be rounded down to multiples of five years.

Complex searches returning many results can take a long time and in extreme cases will be terminated
and not run to completion.

For efficiency limit the number of results returned and displayed.
The number of results returned is given, but is limited to the search limit.

Refine the search to obtain a manageable number of relevant results.

If a display limit is not specified, a default limit of 100 is set

The results can be displayed in any order of 'last name', 'first name', 'birth year' and 'census year'.

Use the "Clear all" button to clear all search terms to start a new search.

Each search result contains a link to the results for all members of the household.

Define or modify the search criteria

Define or modify the search criteria by entering data in the form below.

Last name. The search can be for an exact, partial, Soundex or Metaphone
match of one from a list of surnames separated by commas.

Select last name search type

Last name(s)

First name. The first name field can be a single christian name, but can also include second names and
initials.

The search can be for an exact, partial, Soundex or Metaphone match of one from a list of first names separated by commas.
The exact match will seek to match the complete first name field, rejecting a matching first name
followed by a second name or initial whilst a partial match will retrieve these and similar compound first names
where, for example, the searched for name appears as a second name. The Soundex and Metaphone searches are included,
but will not produce good results when first names are followed by second names or initials, but might be useful
when exact and partial match searches fail to find an individual who is expected to be in Henley in a particular
census year.

Select first name search type

First name(s)

Birth year. The birth year can be a single year, or a range of years defined by two years separated by a minus sign.

Birth year or range

Sex. Sex was indicated by entering age in one of two columns. Sometimes the
indicated sex clearly conflicts with other data, such as the name or relationship to the head of household.
Transcribers generally followed the policy of entering data as it was written in the enumerator's book,
but in some rare instances the sex been changed to match other data across two or more years.

Select sex

Relationship. This field was introduced for the first time in 1851.
Searches specifying this field will produce no results for 1841.

Select relationship(s)

Marital status.

Select marital status (one or more)

Occupation category.

The database records nearly 4,000 distinct occupations. These have been categorised in a hierarchy
of 'Class', 'Group', 'Sub-group' and 'Category'. This field allows selection by any of these, but requires
understanding of the hierarchy. If a researcher wishes to extract data by occupation, first select menu
item 'Occupations'.

Select occupation categories

Streets.

Select street(s)

Birth Counties.

Select county(counties)

Census years. Use this field to reduce the results to a specific census year or years.
Select one or more census years from the drop down list.

Select census year(s)

Ordering the results.

Order the results in any order of 'last name', 'first name', 'birth year' and 'census year'.

Order by

Then by

Then by

Then by

Limiting the number of results found and displayed.

When developing a new search,
the load on the server and the time of the researcher can be saved by limiting the number of results found and displayed.
The default display limit is 100.